Distributed Small to Medium sized Gas Turbine Cogeneration System Demonstration Project in Uzbekistan: Energy Savings through Stable Provision of Electric Power and Heat as well as Reduced Natural Gas Consumption

Tokyo, January 30, 2017 — Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. announced today its signing of a joint outsourcing contract with Japan's New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), together with Marubeni Utility Services, Ltd., to implement a demonstration project in the Republic of Uzbekistan. The project is an international effort to demonstrate the efficacy of energy-saving systems and technologies designed to optimize energy consumption, and it is being implemented with the aim of boosting generation efficiency at a combined heat and power plant in Uzbekistan while converting the country's many heat supply plants into combined heat and power plants to address the pressing need for increased power supply across the nation. In addition, the project is also aimed at achieving stable power and heat supply and realizing energy savings.

Project Overview

In Uzbekistan, ten thermal power plants, including three combined heat and power plants, produce nearly all of the country's electric power. However, many of these plants were constructed during the Soviet era, and their performance and reliability are declining. Ensuring a stable power supply is therefore a pressing issue as power demand is increasing due to the country's recent economic growth. For this reason, the government of Uzbekistan is planning to modernize existing power plants and convert more than 2,000 domestic heat supply plants of various sizes into combined heat and power plants. This is expected to improve the country's power generation capacity and decentralize power sources. Against this backdrop, NEDO and the government of Uzbekistan agreed to jointly implement a demonstration project in Fergana with the aim of promoting small- to medium-sized high-efficiency gas turbine cogeneration systems in Uzbekistan. The two sides concluded a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for the project on October 14, 2016. Subsequently, together with Marubeni Utility Services, Kawasaki signed an implementation document (ID) with the Uzbek state-run power company SJSC Uzbekenergo, which will handle implementation of this demonstration project on the Uzbek side.

NEDO has contracted project execution to Kawasaki and Marubeni Utility Services. In Uzbekistan's Fergana City, the two parties will install a high-efficiency gas turbine cogeneration system, comprising a 17 MW GPB180D gas turbine generator system and a waste heat recovery steam boiler, at the Fergana Combined Heat and Power Plant in pursuit of highly efficient heat and power supply operations. Furthermore, the two companies will install a similarly structured 7 MW system, consisting of a GPB80D gas turbine generation system and a waste heat recovery hot water boiler, at the Fergana RK-3 Heat Supply Plant to convert the plant into a combined heat and power plant.

The introduction of these high-efficiency, Small to Medium sized gas turbine cogeneration systems to produce power will make it possible to curtail operation of existing, low-efficiency thermal power plants and reduce consumption of the natural gas used to fuel their thermal power generation processes. In addition, the new cogeneration system locations will offer shortened power transmission distances, thus reducing transmission loss that occurs when power is sent to locations far away from plants.

By utilizing this project's results, Kawasaki will strive to promote more widespread use of gas turbine cogeneration systems throughout Uzbekistan while holding it up as a model project to promote expanded installation efforts in other countries throughout Central Asia, where numerous heat supply plants already exist.